Earlier this month, Microsoft hosted several press events to introduce its Kinect motion control product to fashion and lifestyle press and bloggers, aiming squarely at the casual set to sell its $200 competitor to Nintendo's profitable domination of the casual console market. The message Microsoft wanted to send was that Kinect was for the cool kids, and decidedly not its core gamer audience.

Finally! After in-game ads have been around in some form for around 30 years, there's finally a study that links them to an increase in product purchase. Nielsen recently worked with EA and Gatorade to look into how much exposure to in-game ads would increase product sales. The result? 24% increase in purchases and an ROI of $3.11.

This week I saw an article that reminded me of one of my favorite game marketing examples from a half decade before the first Gaming Insider was even written. The article in question detailed the sudden discovery of a verbally abusive commentator in "Wave Race: Blue Storm," a GameCube game from nine years ago. The idea of a dormant cheat code resurfacing well after a game's release jogged my memory.